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Gift-filled shoeboxes are shipped to needy children

SAMARITAN’S Purse sent out almost a million gift-filled shoeboxes shipped to needy children around the world through Operation Christmas Child.

More than 900,000 shoeboxes were donated by individuals, groups, churches, schools and workplaces in the UK.

Peter and Eileen Ivermee, area co-ordinators for Dorset Samaritan’s Purse, said: “We’re so thankful for the amazing generosity of people in Dorset. We can only imagine the joy a child feels when they receive a shoebox, packed with gifts, from someone they don’t know, but someone who cared enough for them and showed them that they are not forgotten at Christmas.”

This year, for the first time, gift-filled shoeboxes were sent from donors in the UK to children in Rwanda. In April, 2014, Rwanda will mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide that saw almost one million people killed in 100 days.